It has been and eventful week! Emma arrived to San Jose last Thursday and we got a rental car that turned out to be the last car left... a HUGE SUV. We did need a 4x4 to go to one of our destinations so beggars could not be choosers and we were off with a huge car that we soon named, The Boat. After grabbing some snacks we hit the road for Monteverde, a popular tourist destination in Northern Costa Rica. It was about a 4 hour drive and when I told my boss that we were driving there at night he was like "Really?!" and I thought it was strange that he was surprised so I asked if it was a bad idea to drive at night and he said, "well I guess not but some of the roads are rough" so upstate New Yorker me, took it with a grain of salt and we left for Monteverde. After about 3 hours into the trip I said to Emma, "This isn't bad it is just really hilly and curvy"... little did we know. About 15 minutes later we were on very narrow, gravel road with a bank on one side of us and a cliff on the other. Prior to the trip Emma had asked about possibly going whitewater rafting because it is relatively popular here but it was a little to far out of our price range so we opted out. However, after about 30 minutes on the gravel road that was taking us straight up hill Emma declared that, "This is like whitewater rafting it is so bumpy and our car is Boat!" We soon came up with "Rocky Road Rafting!" hahaha and it wasn't long after that we wished for the rafting to be over… by Monday our necks were so sore from driving on so many bumpy gravel roads!
The Boat!
On the narrow gravel road to Monteverde we started to get a little more nervous when cars started to come down the hill that we were going up with a cliff on the side of us. At one point a huge truck was coming down the hill and were very grateful to see that the cliff was his side of the road! haha We made it to Monteverde at about 9pm and were shocked to see how small the town was.
The next morning we were set to go horseback riding at 9am! When we arrived at the farm we learned that it we were the only ones going on the tour. We started out on a good foot when our tour guide was bucked off his horse! He was not hurt but was a little startled. We later learned that it was his first time falling off a horse in 13 years! After his fall he took a little time to recover and was soon back on his horse and showing me a picture of all of his children and about 8 pictures of his dog. haha He did not speak very much English but was very patient with us to make sure that we understood everything in Spanish. Emma has not taken Spanish since high school so the delay in understanding things and speaking in Spanish was a little slower. It is hard to get used to only speaking Spanish and it had been so long since Emma has used Spanish that I was impressed with how much she remembered but I couldn't help but giggle at a few things. When we were at the farm she was amazed at how clean the white horse was and wanted to ask how it was so clean. However, when she did so she asked why her head was so clean, cabeza (head) instead of caballo (horse). A few more cabeza’s were used for horse, house and various words starting with C and it soon became the joke of the day and gave us a good laugh.
Emma and I on the horse's! Whiskey and Johnny... mine was Whiskey... he was a little sassy.
A pretty view from the Hike.
We saw a Tucanito.. a small Tucan! ... it is a little hard to see...
Later in the day we went in search of a hike, Cerro Amigos “Friends Hill” that I had read about in review about things to do in Monteverde. Before Emma left her mom said that between the two of us we should have a whole brain good enough to get around safely, turns we got around safely but not very accurately... After driving around for an hour looking for the start of the hike we soon found out that it was about 100 meters from our hotel, where we had first set out to find it. While we were looking for the hike we stopped and asked for directions and a kind Tico explained the directions and then asked if we were "fit" and we were like yeah we are runners etc. and he proceeded to tell us that it takes about 45 minutes to get to the top. We started the hike and it was soon obvious why the Tico had asked us if we were in shape. It was not a “hill” it was a mountain and the trail did not curve around the mountain it went straight up the mountain and we were dying after about 10 minutes. However, we redeemed ourselves and made it up the hill in only 35 minutes! When we got to the top there was a beautiful view of the Pacific gulf and supposedly could see Nicaragua from there too.
While we were looking for the hike for an hour we did come across MONKEYS!
The view from the top of the mountain!
The view from the other side of the mountain. If you look closely you can see the Pacific Gulf... it is the tiny white sliver... that is water.... it looked much better in person.
Emma!
It was a close one!
We also saw a waterfall on the hike too!... this is actually about 8 inches big hahaha... it cracked us up!
On Saturday we were off to Arenal, which is famous for its lake, volcano, and rain forest. On our way to Arenal we stopped for lunch at a relatively sketchy restaurant that turned out to be delicious and Emma's favorite meal of the week. Sometimes the best things come from the most unexpected places. At Arenal we did a "Canopy Tour" which included 12 zip lines and 1 "Tarzan Swinging." The Tarzan Swing was literally swinging off of a 40 foot drop... It was "optional but you have to do it" as our tour guides told us haha We had a blast on the tour and was well worth the trip to Arenal.
Emma and I all suited up!
Emma harnessed in to swing like Tarzan!
Me Zip Lining!
There was a comments book at the Canopy Tour company that we were looking through and we came across this comment.... it gave us a good laugh.
Pictures of Arenal Volcano and Lake.
On the drive home saw a Coati in the road! They are in the same family as a Raccoon.
Windmills on the mountain!
After Arenal we were off to Tamarindo, one of the most popular beaches in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
The adventures of traveling... I made a reservation at the hostel that we were going to stay at in Tamarindo a couple weeks prior to the trip but when we showed up to the hostel it was full. I told them my name and they had the reservation but they had accidentally over booked but they offered to put us up in a Hotel just down the road that was nicer and included breakfast! They said that they would pay the difference so we happily obliged and were happy with the upgrade. The owner of the hotel met us when we got there and showed us the room and said that we could have it for $40 a night instead of $50. When we told her that we were told that we could have it for $30 a night and they the hostel was going to make up the difference she was a little shocked but agreed. So the next morning when we got up we went to go look for where breakfast was served and when we stepped outside looking confused the owner came down the stairs and asked where we were going and when we said we were looking for breakfast she said "you think you get breakfast for $30 a night" and the looks on our faces must have been priceless... talk about an uncomfortable situation! Apparently there was a little confusion in what the situation was or this lady just did not like the fact that we were only paying $30 a night. Whatever the situation was we no longer felt very comfortable staying there and hit the beach!
Surfing is really popular in Tamarindo.
"Everything is an adventure, except when you are tired and cranky!" ... The drive from hell. I work for a GPS company and I felt as though I was pretty prideful in our map... this was until we had the drive from hell. We were driving from Tamarindo back home to San Jose and the GPS said 6 hours and we heard people say that it only takes 5 to 5.5 so we figured that the GPS just had slower calculations. After we realized that we were driving around Arenal and going the long way home it was too late to turn around so it took us a lovely 8 hours to get home and did not get home until 1am and by that point we were pretty cranky and cursing my boss left and right. However, back at work my boss solved the problem and the map is as good as new now... there was a "broken" road drawn on the map so it did not direct us the right route because the other route was incomplete... at least we were the ones to find the mistake rather than a customer.
After this 8 hour drive our luck went down hill from there… on Monday we drove to the Volcano that was about 1.5 hours from San Jose and once we got there the man at the park sent us back down the mountain after he informed us that because it was so cloudy we would not be able to see anything… we were bummed but moved on to our next destination, lunch and the Cartago Ruins but things did not look any better… after lunch we made it back to a car with a dead battery and had to ask someone if they could jump us. Luckily, it is a law in Costa Rica that everyone must have jumper cables in their car so it was not too hard to find someone to help us. After we were up and running again we made our way to the ruins only to find that it was not open… shit luck. The sign said that it was open M-F 8-4 but it was 2pm on a Monday and the pad locked gate did not look very open. At this point we cut our loses for the day and just drove around cartago for a little bit and then back to San Jose to return the rental car.
What we did get to see on Monday... The beautiful Basilica in Cartago.
It was really great having Emma here. I am glad that I was able to introduce all of the different foods, which we had a steady schedule of what foods needed to be tasted! haha It was also great just to have someone to understand what it is like here and have a full understanding of where I am living and met the people that I see the daily basis. I was sad to see her off at the airport but I am incredibly happy that she was able to come! For now I am back to the daily grind until I head off to Panama next weekend! ... hard knock life!
